"'Yes,' said my friend, 'that was reported, but could hardly have been believed. Sir William was mortally wounded, and lived not quite a week after the action. The only comfort about this sad matter is, that his poor wife, being near the field at the time, joined him immediately after the battle, and had the melancholy satisfaction of attending her husband to the last!'"[27]
[27] Fragments of Voyages and Travels, by Captain Basil Hall, R.N., 1831, vol. ii., pp. 367-371.
It was, as before stated, at Captain Hall's request that Lady De Lancey wrote the memorable Waterloo narrative.
In order to satisfy the natural curiosity of friends—who had probably heard of the narrative in Captain Hall's possession—Lady De Lancey prepared an abridged version, in more general terms, and of a much more reserved character than the original account, written for her brother only.
This condensed account was found amongst the papers of her nephew, General De Lancey Lowe, after his death in 1880. His widow published it in the Illustrated Naval and Military Magazine for 1888, p. 414.
In some few instances this abridged account contains descriptive touches not given in the original narrative. These variations are given in the form of notes to the present edition of the narrative.
Thomas Moore in his diary for the 29th August 1824 describes the circumstances under which Captain Hall lent him his copy of the narrative as follows:—
"A note early from Lord Lansdowne, to say that Capt. Basil Hall, who is at Bowood, wishes much to see me; and that if I cannot come over to-day to either luncheon or dinner, he will call upon me to-morrow. Answered that I would come to dinner to-day. Walked over at five.... Company, only Capt. Basil Hall, Luttrel, and Nugent, and an ad interim tutor of Kerry's.... Hall gave me, before I came away, a journal written by his sister, Lady De Lancey, containing an account of the death of her husband at Waterloo, and her attendance upon him there, they having been but three months married. Walked home; took the narrative to bed with me to read a page or two, but found it so deeply interesting, that I read till near two o'clock, and finished it; made myself quite miserable, and went to sleep, I believe, crying. Hall said he would call upon me to-morrow."[28]
[28] Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, edited by Lord John Russell, vol. iv., p. 239.
Earl Stanhope, in his Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington, p. 182, writes as follows: "I mentioned with much praise Lady De Lancey's narrative of her husband's lingering death and of her own trials and sufferings after Waterloo. The Duke told me that he had seen it—Lord Bathurst having lent it him many years ago." This conversation took place on the 12th October 1839.